Drifting lower on light volume: is this what the first quarter of 2009 will look like? Stocks moved lower today, with declines accelerating midday, but a rebound in the last half hour limited the losses.

With interest rates near zero, and the Fed making plenty of money available, it should be stimulating the economy, but it isnt. That's because those who matter--the banks and consumer--choose to hoard the money instead of lending or spending.

Hartford is seeing heavy options trading Friday, as its stock soars more than 88% even as the broader markets drop. Hartford Financial Services, which has an average daily call volume of 10,000 contracts, saw 37,100 calls trade in the first hour of trading this morning. That's three times full session volume in just 60 minutes!

U.S. stocks had another wild swing in the final 15 minutes of trading that pumped up the Dow from a gain of about 50 points to nearly 200 points as traders largely shrugged off this morning's GDP report that showed the economy is shrinking.

The Dow has traded in a “tight” 290-point range today. Sound familiar? Well, that’s what happened yesterday, too… until the last hour of trading when the markets’ volatility reappeared, especially in the last few minutes of the trading day.

Recapitalization of European banks is continuing: ING took a 10 billion euro ($13.5 billion) cash influsion; French banking giant Societe Generale was down on capitalization concerns; Sweden outlined a $205 billion plan to support its banks. Secretary Paulson will speak at 11:30am ET, giving details of the application process for the capital purchase program. Also: Oppenheimer is upgrading all the big oil and gas names this morning.